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Level: Back from Ninive back home search
Author(s): Miguel
total rating:8.73 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
CC 7 9 9 9
Cuqui 8 10 9 9
Duncan 9 9 10 9
EssGee 8 9 9 8
eTux 8 8 7 7
G.Croft 8 8 10 10
Gerty 8 8 9 8
Jay 8 9 9 9
Jorge22 9 10 9 9
Jose 8 10 10 9
Kristina 8 9 9 10
Loupar 8 9 9 8
MichaelP 7 10 9 8
Obig 9 9 9 10
Phil 9 9 9 7
RaiderGirl 9 10 10 9
Sash 7 8 9 8
Treeble 7 8 8 8
TrueRaider 7 9 8 9
Yoav 10 10 10 10
category averages
(20 reviews)		 8.10 9.05 9.05 8.70

Reviewer's comments

"The best level I've played from this author. I think he worked a lot before the final release. Excellent design and environment with a lot of new textures and objects. Cameras and lights were very good too. Gameplay was really hard, always looking for small details and exploring dark areas with few flares. in the final phase of the game, I could choose two routes, and finally reached the end of the level without the key, so I had to drop to get it and do again the long way back to the T-Rex room, but even so it was a very interesting game you can't miss." - Jose (10-Apr-2012)

"I have to honestly admit I have not finished any other levels of Miguel before, so while I generally have had a bit of a taste from his other work, this is the first one I actually finish. And as such it has left with mixed feelings. There's no denying of the numerous creative touches, like using your sun-glasses to pick a lock, turning on lights in a pool for a switch to become visible, using the cleverly placed crowbar to operate broken switches and the virtual enemies to name a few, the lack of proper camera guidance (the existing fly-by's were a bit jerky and went through walls, plus were not used enough to guide the player and make sure the level flows well), sometimes completely random placement of crucial items and simplistic looks somewhat robbed it from it's full potential. Oftentimes I was simply running around the place with no real clue of how to progress, and while, no doubt, some of it was due to my own observation skills (or lack of), I was not the only one to point this out, so thought it to be a valid complaint about what generally is a fairly nice raid through a base like setting. I probably would've enjoyed it less if I had not played it with a group of other players, so I guess this would be my suggested way of playing should you start this up as well, but it's a good level on its own, so definitely worth a go! Found 2 secrets." - eTux (18-Jun-2008)

"Sometimes you just play a level and enjoy it. Despite getting stuck a couple of times, there were enough challenging things to do and interesting rooms to explore. Except for some backtracking due to the slightly non-linear gameplay approach, I had fun in this level, and felt satsfied on completion. The base style decor is a quite refreshing and there are some interesting and well-designed experimental labs using some good custom objects. Camera flybys were a bit jerky and could have been a bit more cinematic. The use of tron-like textured enemies was a neat concept. The level is well textured and lit, but shadowy corners should all be inspected as they regularly come into play. It is playable by all, and I'd say - go play it." - EssGee (15-Jun-2008)

"It had been a while since I last played a custom level so I did overlook some rather simple things in the level, such as the first power box in the monkey room. Had it not been for the Lara's Home Raiding Party, I would have skipped this level right there. There are quite a few nice touches in here, such as the crowbar neatly placed in a bucket with spare metal bits, Lara picklocking the very first door using a piece of her sunglasses and using the crowbar to replace a broken mechanism handle. But on the downside, I ended up running back and forth more times than needed because of a gneeral lack of guidance, I came across one unmarked climbable wall and a flyby went through walls. It was a good base lab level, though, and the cyber creatures were a nice touch. 70 minutes, 2 secrets. 06/08 LHRP" - Treeble (14-Jun-2008)

"A great original level. Loved the 'virtual' enemies and the sort of foreboding atmosphere created by the visuals and ambient sound. The puzzles were all a great deal or fun but let down by one major issue for me. The level would really have benefited from more cameras showing what doors had opened or the way to go. There were almost none and it was a massive annoyance trying to figure out what just went on when I pushed that lever etc. It was a bit of a game killer, although with the help of the LH Raiding Party I managed to keep on with it. It was also nice to see a level which uses sound effects placed within a level to create a much more realistic atmosphere, something many levels even now still overlook. I had an issue where if I saved in some rooms, the level would crash on re-load but that may have been an issue with my computer." - TrueRaider (14-Jun-2008)

"Here's another fine level that somehow slipped by me when it was released more than five years ago. Had it not been for the pervasive darkness, which forced me to boost my monitor gamma to the max so that I could see what was going on around me, I would be even more generous with my ratings. You get a nice high tech romp through a base-type setting that will take you about an hour and a half to complete. I was grateful for Monika's walkthrough, which alleviated some of the stress I would otherwise have experienced because of all the backtracking, particularly near the end. You have a few nice touches along the way, notably the Lego-style enemies which which you must deal. No impossible jumps or timed runs, no breathtaking scenery, just a nice old-fashioned raid that you're likely to enjoy a great deal. Recommended." - Phil (08-Jun-2008)

"Total change of environment from Miguel's first Ninive levels. It seems that Lara has been captured and is in a pitch black prison cell. Brilliant idea of Lara using the broken sunglasses as a lock pick to escape. She discovers she's in a dark underground laboratory. We encounter the results of some experiments with living creatures in the form of sharks, tigers, crocs, a TRex, and even humans. The texturing and lighting are superb, if a little on the dark side. We need to find keys, fuses, discs, beetles, and the crowbar - found in an excellent location. Along the way we use wheels on doors, push some blocks, crawl in vents, open underwater doors, use unusual switches, target and shoot very well hidden fuseboxes, and turn on the floodlights underwater to see where we are going. The level is fairly straight forward, with the highlights being the altered creatures and little actions like shimmying on a pipe over fires. There is a fair amount of backtracking, and if the player doesn't know what to do (which will happen) use the binoculars and search from something to shoot. All this to reclaim the crown of Senaquerib. To me everything was appropriate to the level, so there is a great sense of place, added to by the music. A great level to play." - CC (06-Jun-2006)

“Miguel has reached a creative level very well done. The gameplay has not a high difficulty but it's very interesting. You must pay attention to some fuse boxes and levers very well hidden. Excellent textures and great atmosphere but a little too dark for my taste. Objects and enemies are very well placed and originally designed. The piece of broken sunglasses is a nice touch. I loved the music and the way to collect the crowbar. I enjoyed this level as I enjoyed the previous levels made by Miguel. His creativity building levels is increasing. Bravo Miguel!” – Cuqui (04-Nov-2003)

“With Ninive being one of my favorite levels I was very pleased to hear of the release of 'Back from Ninive'. This turned out to be nothing like the first but was a great level too. This time Lara has to use a pair of broken glasses to break into a strange lab where men and animals are both being experimented on and turned into electronic machines. There's lots of deadly water enemies hidden buttons and crawlspaces in this lab environment and some awesome effects as well. Find four objects to get the pyramid key and claim your prize and collect at least three secrets along the way. Thanks for another great level Miguel!” – RaiderGirl (28-Oct-2003)

“Back from Ninive is not really what I was expecting; I thought that Miguel was keeping out the adventure before. BFN takes place in a totally different setting: the Virtual Creatures Lab. Gameplay is easy and it has clever puzzles. Some of the objects aren't to take them (the virtual bee under the laser and few objects on tables and consoles); the virtual enemies and the baddies are funny to kill and are always in numeric advantage over Lara (six tigers four soldiers....). The items and the DNS-Chips are well placed and the secrets... I found two of them (I think they were three). The atmosphere is enough impressive being a Secret Laboratory: there are corpses caged animals and half-made virtual soldiers. The lighting is a bit dark and some rooms have the annoying blue light the pitch black points usually hidden secrets or objects that's right. The textures match perfectly with the scenery. I played 1 hr 30 min and found 2 secrets. I've enjoyed very much this level; good work Miguel! P.S.:I missed the marvelous eyes of Lara from Ninive.” – Loupar (01-Oct-2003)

“This level was a good adventure. It takes place on a testing base where you have to collect 4 Virtual Creature DNS-Chips and 2 Alien DNS-Chips. Well I don’t know what the last two ones are suitable for because I couldn’t use them anywhere. Later you will find some discs goodies the Power Room Key and finally the Senaqueribs Crown. During the game you have to fight with guards armed with canes transparent sharks crocodiles dogs bees and a T-Rex. Interestingly the T-Rex means the smallest problem: run under his belly and shoot him once with the Revolver. But you should economize on Revolver Ammo because you have to shoot aimed the lights above the switch boxes several times. There are some laser gates and moveable blocks on the level. Although there are also some bugs e.g. the exit doesn’t always open at the T-Rex or in the room of the Alien DND-Chip one of the blocks is not always moveable. It’s interesting lightening the pool and collecting the Crowbar not from the ground but out of a basket of Crowbars. The added mysterious sounds are great sometimes my heart was heavily beating. The level is not linear: you must look around carefully - I didn’t find the next round at the corpse for a long time. The textures fit well to the level. So it was a great level I recommend it all of you.” – Obig (13-Sep-2003)

“Now this is really a shame I have to say. Given the frustration I personally had with the gameplay here the rating of 7 is rather generous: this is a fairly linear lab level with only an occasional backtrack but the respective task at hand is about half a dozen times along the way so totally elusive that this level lost its charm for me completely. Throughout the adventure you will need to use eagle eyes with nightvision to spot crucial pickups in dark recesses transparent wall levers in unexpected places underwater levers hidden in the ceiling and blue buttons to shoot with the revolver - this is fine by me every now and then but here the whole game depends on it and it just wasn't funnny anymore after a while. Now having vented my frustration this is of course from an architectural and design point of view absolutely brilliant. The new objects and texturing is unique and flawless and the 'DNS-enemies' are fun as you get a T-Rex SAS dogs sharks and crocs of a different kind. Music and sound added is also remarkable and some of the flybys are inventive others seemed a little rough and pointless. Four beetles (DNS Chips) to find along the way and place in the pyramid a few blocks to move to eventually get the Power Room (Guardian) Key and the Crown you came here for. I found two of the apparently three secrets and due to all the searching spent almost 1:30 hours of net gaming time in the labs.” – Michael (12-Sep-2003)

“I enjoyed this coming back from Ninive which doesn't resemble Ninive at all. Even though it's a short game and even tough we've been a little spoilt lately by builders who give us entire TR adventures it does deserve a good rating. I understand it's harder to build open air levels (which this isn't) because it's something more organic - still this level seems to have been very carefully built and it's complex enough to keep any player busy for a while. It is neither too difficult nor too easy probably more on the difficult side since you have to go back and fro a lot in order to do what you have to which may be a little puzzling at times. It can also be a little too dark (realism yes I know) from time to time but you have enough flares to help you out whenever really needed even though not the usual truck full of flares. It has a nice creepy ambiance and very good ideas such as the beehive (what's that bee artifact doing there below the ray of light?) being able to shimmy along a large tube as if it were a crack on the wall or at least a tiny tube and the electronic sharks tigers crocodiles a T-Rex and warriors among other things. No hard jumps at all as in most levels this is by no means a ‘Japanese’ level frankly I don't even remember jumping apart from small things... You spend most of the time wondering how to do this how to achieve that but that's only because it's still too early and you'll find it out in due time - as for the crystal window that should open to the power room above the T-Rex's room... I found it very interesting what can I say? Some things were unexpected but do remember blindness is still the worst TR player's enemy (and maybe that's the reason why I missed a secret somewhere). My only true complaint is that I found the ending rather sudden... You get to the power room see lasers working way down below and wonder if you shouldn't try to go there kill one more TR2 thug place the power room key which opens the entrance to a place where you'll get an artifact you've been searching for and then there's a flyby. A promising one I must say. You wonder ‘where do I have to go next?’. You get out of the room and ... woosh! ... back to the title. That together with the perhaps excessive darkness of the game at times were definitive minuses. But not enough to seriously downrate this level which I recommend to any TR player (from beginners to experts and people who have already played Miguel's nice levels) who's willing to mix fun and mystery. Yes because it is a funnily mysterious adventure!” – Jorge22 (12-Sep-2003)

“This has nothing to do with the Ninive we remembered as Lara is in an underground lab this time. The opening flyby let you see some all brawn and no brains figures guarding a lever and from then on it is a rather straight forward game. Till a certain point though as there is some backtracking as well to do later on so don't think this is an easy level as it isn't. I loved the way the crowbar was hidden and also when the pool lights came on. Not a fan of base levels this one was rather nice as gameplay goes. Miguel made this lab look real good with a lot of nice touches at least it gave me an impression to be in a real lab where very nasty experiments take place. There are fuse boxes to shoot blocks to move the trick with a flare is still the best one to find them crawling through ducks some swimming and also being cooped up in a rather small room with crocs how unfair LOL. Finding 4 Virtual Creature DNS-CHIPS (re-textured beetles) is your main goal. There was a nasty bug in mine but after a new download and installing it went like a dream so I am happy. There are still some doors closed so I have a bit of an unfinished feeling but it didn't hinder my gameplay at all. Have fun raiding this lab as I for sure had. 08-09-2003” – Gerty (11-Sep-2003)

“Miguel likes to hide things in the dark and almost-behind-things. This almost drove me mad in the beginning but the atmosphere and the great surroundings kept me going. When Lara comes back from Ninive she gets kidnapped. She has to escape and retrieve the Senaqueribs Crown. She is being held prisoner inside a huge lab where scary experiments are taking place...there is blood and body parts and strange creatures everywhere!” – G.Croft (09-Sep-2003)

“Getting Back from Ninive is like getting Back to the Future. You go from ancient ruin to wacky futurism with virtual creatures out to get you. Going face to face with the Low Polygon Count T REX was quite the blast (you have to get down in its recess to kill it). Like all his levels this has a large sense of scale but success requires paying attention to small details (such as shooting out a light on the far side of a big room and using the crowbar in one part of a console). This one has for me a real sense of balance between being challenging and rewarding. You get done feeling like it was a fun ride and a tough one but without pulling your hair out. I would have given a 10 for Lighting and Textures except I felt it was too dark. A terrific accomplishment from Miguel.” – Duncan (08-Sep-2003)

“Remember Ninive well forget it because this is nothing like it. I don’t know how she does it or why for that matter but Lara seems to have found herself infiltrating another lab once again where making virtual animals seems to be the evil plans of those who lurk there and those who lurk there are the most steroid induced blockheads I have ever seen. All the virtual animal enemies you come across have the look that is only best described as the Tron look you know the movie and these animals you meet are insects sharks crocs dogs and a big ol’ T-Rex that unfortunately as in most instances in other levels isn’t too hard to put down and doesn’t have the thrill factor it seems to once have had of course that is if you have the weaponry otherwise it’s still one scary momma. In this very original of labs you will need to keep your eyes well and truly open as you need to find fuse boxes to shoot movable blocks to move well I guess they lose their effectiveness if you don’t move them and 4 virtual beetles to pry off the wall all leading you in your quest to turn off the power in this insidious lab but why who knows who cares you will also find two more beetles to collect and a crossbow as secrets but the only useful one of those is the crossbow so look for things to crowbar. This level took me 75 minutes to finish and I seemed to have left a couple of doors unopened two in fact from near the start of the level but these may have just been for show still it leaves me with a sense of missing something and I was also able to shoot a urinal off the wall but this seems to have done nothing but anger the poor bladder bursting steroid boys. Anyway for those that loved Ninive don’t really expect more of the same but still expect a little confusion and moments of being stuck but also quite an enjoyable time.” – Sash (07-Sep-2003)

“From the opening sequence with the fun music and the two bad guys hefting their coshes you feel you may be in for something a little different and when you pick the door lock with a piece of broken sunglasses you become quite certain. The lab atmosphere is well created with lots of new textures objects and sounds. Even find the crowbar is a novel experience. I loved the hive room complete with 'bees' and the 'virtual' animals and objects look suitably alien. The only human enemies are club wielding thugs. You need to find four chips to lead you to Senaquerib's crown. I did find the ending rather abrupt and can only hope the adventure will be continuing. 06.09.2003” – Jay (06-Sep-2003)

“Nice level and very well done. Excellent textures. The gameplay is exciting and fun. Difficult to find some chip I enjoyed this level.” – Yoav (06-Sep-2003)

“The story says this is a continuous level from ‘Ninive’ Miguel’s previous one although this is very high tech. Lara in the same outfit as before has to retrieve the Senaqueribs Crown by exploring different levels of a lab. There are soldiers with mechanical body parts added on their body inside what looks like cryogenic booths. The ones that attack Lara are muscular guys with bats and there are also some crocodiles fish and a T-Rex I didn’t kill with all of them being wired framed. You have to collect four Chips and a fuse that will eventually lead you to the crown. I liked the idea of placing a fuse to turn on the pool lights the crowbar was cleverly placed not hidden but not too obvious valves that clear the toxic water are also used and the area with the beehive was very good with bees chasing Lara. It took more than an hour to complete it with two secrets found the crossbow and a blue chip. This is a pleasant level I would recommend you to play.” – Kristina (04-Sep-2003)
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